At the time, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said, “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values and we have severed our business relationship with him.”

Gunn’s old tweets, which were dug up by critics online, included lines like, “I like when little boys touch me in my silly place.”

“The best thing about being raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like ‘when this feels great, not being raped!” another tweet read.

Other now-deleted tweets from 2008-2011 included jokes about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, AIDS and the holocaust.

Gunn publicly apologized, saying that his “words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative.”

“I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time,” Gunn’s statement continued.

The “Guardians” cast released an open letter later that month in full support of Gunn and the movie’s star, Chris Pratt, personally said he’d “love to see him reinstated as director of Volume 3.”